Six-time Gr1-winning mare Verry Elleegant has been penalised 0.5kg for her win in the Gr1 Caulfield Cup on Saturday, taking her weight in the Gr1 Melbourne Cup next month to 55.5kg.
“Saturday’s Caulfield Cup was an outstanding edition of the 2400m handicap and it was fought out by two world class horses with Verry Elleegant strong on the line and safely holding Gr1 Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck,” Racing Victoria Executive General Manager – Racing, Greg Carpenter said.
Verry Elleegant returns after her Caulfield win (Pic – Chris Waller Racing FB)
“Verry Elleegant carried the second highest weight for a winning mare in Caulfield Cup history behind Tranquil Star’s 56kg in 1942 and her hard-fought victory was her sixth Gr1 race to underline her elite standing.”
Carpenter added, “When we took into account her performance on Saturday, the relative weight to those placed behind her and her overall record, we felt that 0.5kg was the appropriate penalty which equates to a length over 3200m. With 55.5kgs to carry, the great Makybe Diva is the only mare to carry more weight to victory in the Melbourne Cup, having lumped 58kg to her third win in the race 2005, having carried 55.5kgs a year earlier.”
One of the biggest questions yet to be answered is whether James McDonald or Mark Zahra will take the ride.
There have been 96 Caulfield Cup winners contest the Melbourne Cup and just 11 have completed the double, the last of those being New Zealand mare Ethereal, 19 years ago, who won the Melbourne Cup with 52kg.
Alarmingly for Verry Elleegant’s Melbourne Cup supporters, since Ethereal’s achievement, 13 Caulfield Cup winners have contested the Melbourne Cup a few weeks later and not one of them has finished in the first three placegetters.
With the obviously significant challenge for any horse to complete the elusive double, Racing Victoria Executive General Manager – Racing, Greg Carpenter, pointed out a salient fact: “Despite the outstanding performances by Verry Elleegant and runner-up Anthony Van Dyck in the Caulfield Cup, the top three in the Melbourne Cup market did not run on Saturday in Tiger Moth, Russian Camelot and Surprise Baby, neither did experienced horses like Master of Reality and Twilight Payment.”
He cautioned, “A further 800m and a new wave of competitors await Verry Elleegant at Flemington and history says that with 55.5kg she faces a challenge to become just the twelfth horse in 143 years of the Caulfield Cup to race on and win the Melbourne Cup.”
Verry Elleegant joins fellow Kiwi-bred Oceanex as one of three horses ballot exempt for the Melbourne Cup to date, with Persan the other.
